The standard Italian rifle of the Great War was adopted
in 1891. It was fed with a 6-round clip. The clip was a Mannlicher design
and the breech block assembly was designed by an Italian gunsmith named
Carcano.

While it is looked down upon by some devotees of the "finer"
rifles, it was a rugged weapon that didn't foul up easily
and withstood hard treatment. Its smaller cartridges [Cal. 6.5x52 mm vs.
7.92 mm Mauser] meant a soldier could carry more rounds and its clip
held 6 rounds vs. 5 per clip for almost all rifles of the other belligerents.

It's length was designed for an obsolete method of warfare, allowing an
infantryman to fend off the lance or saber of a mounted cavalryman.

By the time of the Second World War, not much about the
Carcano had changed. Some shorter versions of the Carcano rifle were in
service and the rapid onset of the war had shelved Italy's plans to update
the rifle's caliber to 7,35x51. Despite the fact that the older M1891
infantry rifle was mostly being replaced by M1891/38 series carbines,
performance in North African campaigns convinced fascist Italy to begin
manufacturing the longer type infantry rifle once more. This led to the
adoption of the M1891/41 Fucile. Aside from a more compact rear sight,
standard non-progressive rifling, and a barrel slightly shorter than the
older infantry rifle, the 1941 adaptation is little changed from the pre-WW1
era weapon - it was even issued with the same bayonet.

The M1891/41 rifle was only manufactured at two arsenals,
R.E. Terni (aka Terni, FAT) from 1941 to 1945 and Armaguerra Cremona from
1941 to 1944.